| Green Energy through an engineer's eyes |
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A blog originally written in Dutch for www.bulkonline.nl, a Dutch website on bulk handling operations.
Do you have solar panels on your roof? It’s a question that’s launched to me on every network event. In modern times ‘thinking green’ is apparently a requirement to be honoured as a ‘cool’ person. Yet, there are many ways to be ‘green’ … In first order I’m a firm believer of the RUE-principle. RUE stands for “Rational Use of Energy”. It invites everyone, individuals and companies, to consume as less energy as possible and to use the consumed energy in a responsible way. Lowering the thermostat by one degree. Regularly cleaning pump filters in order to prevent the pump from overload. Switching from oil- and coal-firing to … Good question indeed: to what? No panic. I will not detail on all pro’s and contra’s of all possible alternatives. I just want to point out that any alternative will have its positive and negative influences as well. An example: Windmills transform wind energy into electrical energy, by which the wind looses part of its energy. The consequence: behind the windmill the wind has lost velocity. Therefore it’s likely that the microclimate behind a windmill park has changed in comparison to the situation when no windmills were there. And as there are lot’s of windmill parks in the world, isn’t it reasonable to state that all windmill parks together influence climate as well? And what about biomass? Several studies have proven that firing biomass – whether or not co-combusted with coal or natural gas – has resulted in additional, sometimes expensive challenges for bulk handling and energy production. The corrosion of e.g. boiler tubes already increased considerably when low-NOx combustion was introduced, and nowadays firing biomass increases corrosion of boiler tubes even further. As to the bulk handling of the feedstock, it has been shown that several breakers had to be modified or replaced by other models in order to be able to process certain types of biomass. Thorough cleaning of most biomass is required as well, as miscellaneous fractions could hamper the processing and/or firing of the fuel. Certain types of biomass require complete drying in order to be able to process it to burnable fuel etc. All these additional operations … they require additional energy consumption as well. Yet .. isn’t that against the RUE-principle?
And no, I don’t have solar panels on my roof.
Dr. ir. Frans Vos 2011, February 14th |
What’s important in the end is the Total ‘Cost of Ownership’. What’s the total cost in order to operate an installation with as less downtime as possible? The lower, the better. The energy bill is a considerable part of this cost. Also the bulk handlers play a vital role in reducing the cost of ownership of energy production. Bulk handlers not only have to act themselves according to the RUE-principles, yet they are also well placed to advise their clients on RUE-optimisations of their bulk handling operations. This way the client’s energy bill will reduce and the client’s gratitude will be beneficiary to the bulk handler. That’s the ultimate goal in everything we do: a WIN-WIN situation.
